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Sanctioning the unknown

Worth reading this op-ed piece from the Moscow Times on why Western sanctions might not hit home in Russia.

It argues that while sanctions are not a new concept for private sector institutions to follow, the offshore nature of how many Russian entities do business, combined with complex business structures designed to obscure the beneficial owners of an entity would make identifying sanctioned individuals almost impossible.

Financial Crime Asia is wondering if this is anything new for financial institution analysts – turned investigators – who regularly scour complex business arrangements to scan for sanctioned entities and people?

“Former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, one of the report author’s told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that key figures linking Putin to billions of dollars worth of corruption are largely unknown to most Russians.”